After some suggestions from esselfortium, I gave the old WhackEd2 an update. New are state filters, to only display states belonging to a thing or weapon, or to display unused states. The UI has gotten a makeover as well.

However, I don't do dehacked work at all anymore, so I'd like to know if there is anything that can be added to make things easier. Key shortcuts, automation of things you do often, etc.

It'd be even better still if the order of the frames list could be manually rearranged, with the custom order saved as comments or as an extra data file.....but just the existence of the filters should make working with complex dehacked patches a few thousand times less confusing.

First off, I believe I encountered a bug. The max health value in the miscellaneous section should default to 100. This is the value that medikits, stimpacks, and berserks will give up to. This existed in WhackEd2 and it's not really that major, but you can't specify a value of 200 unless you manually edit the patch file.

The unused states filter... brilliant. I didn't know there were that many unused frames in Doom II. Although, could you factor in whether the states are referenced in the thing properties or not? For example, the Pain Elemental resurrection frames are not included under this filter.

A past suggestion was to implement a similar function to DeHackEd's "thing copy". It was pretty useful to be able to copy a thing's states/sounds/flags from one thing number to another. You could also expand on this idea by having a function that swaps two things' properties.

Another minor bug: when saving a file, if you don't specify a file extension, it doesn't add one, despite what type of file you are saving it as (e.g. "dehacked files" or "all files").

I'm sorry to say this, but I was a bit disappointed in this version. The only real thing that seems to have changed is the UI, and it's a bit more difficult to manipulate (the window sizes are larger, and windows sizing, selection, minimizing, etc are bit buggy).

I was really hoping that you would allow a bit more customization, especially towards creating new configurations (adding codepointers and thing flags) and tables for source ports. That way, you wouldn't have any obligation to maintaining current configurations because someone else could create them.

esselfortium
Hmm, it seems that some "unused" frames are actually used, even though they're not directly referenced.
Maybe there could be some way to manually flag certain frames to never appear as unused? If not, maybe just change the filter name from "Unused" to "Unreferenced".

Yeah I noticed that. Some weapon states, and the Icon of Sin explosion states most notably. The manual flagging might be an option to solve that.

EarthQuake
The max health value in the miscellaneous section should default to 100.

Odd, this one must have crept in there way back when I dumped the tables from the Doom executable.

Although, could you factor in whether the states are referenced in the thing properties or not? For example, the Pain Elemental resurrection frames are not included under this filter.

It factors those states in already. I've noticed some bugs with the Unused filter though, so it's not ready yet.

DeHackEd's "thing copy"

Good idea. I remember you suggested this, but I couldn't be bothered touching WhackEd back then :)

The only real thing that seems to have changed is the UI, and it's a bit more difficult to manipulate.

Hw is window selection and resizing buggier? I don't remember touching that code.

I was really hoping that you would allow a bit more customization, especially towards creating new configurations (adding codepointers and thing flags) and tables for source ports.

It's possible to add thing flags by modifying a configuration (found in WhackEd3\config). Codepointers maybe. What did you have in mind exactly?

I focused mostly on the UI update and the state editor changes; giving it a visual refresh is what gave me the most motivation anyway. But now that I'm at it I might as well add some features.

exl said:
Some weapon states, and the Icon of Sin explosion states most notably. The manual flagging might be an option to solve that.

Various states depend on pointers getting activated, and are not directly referred to in the thing or weapon tables (which seem to be what the program is relying on solely). The weapon firing graphics of weapons that have more than one, the player firing frame (as opposed to just aiming), the arch-vile resurrection action and the boss explosions all behave this way.

Curiously, while the program wrongly marked the first of the three resurrecting arch-vile frames as unused, it marked the other two as used. I'm guessing that's just because the second and third are associated to "next frame". But what if "next frame" comes from an unused frame? The whole chain of frames should become unused.

This doesn't work on my Windows 98 computer (at least the installer doesn't*). Have you any plans to make the binary more system independent?

* I even have this that lets me run various Windows XP specific programs, but the installer just says "no" (which might be arbitrary).

Maybe not, but when maximizing the program at 1024x768, I was forced to maximize the larger windows because they would display slightly off the screen by default. Maximizing one would mean when I select another window via a tab, they would restore themselves. Maybe a more compact layout, or a horizontal-based one for some of the forms (I'm mostly referring to the new states window layout). I just liked the original behavior better because I could quickly navigate through the program without having to resize/move child windows. Before, there was no need to manipulate the windows before starting a patch.

exl said:
It's possible to add thing flags by modifying a configuration (found in WhackEd3\config). Codepointers maybe. What did you have in mind exactly?

Basically, functionality in regards to source ports like Eternity, ZDaemon, or ZDoom (ports that still make good use of DeHackEd). This could be anything from "Boom Mnemonic" thing flags and codepointers that don't have an "offset" in the executable. Also, if you felt compelled to do so, you could also support the extended state and thing properties that some of these ports have, like "Use Ammo" or "Render Style". The ability to somehow define these would mean less work for you in long run.

1. Please, allow us to start several instances of application. It is stupid to have C:\WhackEd2 and C:\WhackEd2_2 if I want to use two editors at the same time.

2. Please, do not open IWADs in exclusive mode. It annoys me when I can't use DoomBuilder if WhackEd is running because of

WARNING: Could not open the IWAD file "doom2.wad"
WARNING: Could not find required lump PLAYPAL

3. Would be cool to have copy/paste abilities for states (with intermediate dialog which columns I want to paste). Should work between instances.

4. Would be cool to have ability to change something in selection (for states). Something like we have in DoomBuilder after selecting some lines/things/sectros and invoking of their properties.http://prboom-plus.sf.net/db_properties.png

Old topic is old :) I'm not inclined to work on WhackEd3 any further, it's written in an ancient language that I am sick and tired of.

entryway said:
1. Please, allow us to start several instances of application. It is stupid to have C:\WhackEd2 and C:\WhackEd2_2 if I want to use two editors at the same time.

2. Please, do not open IWADs in exclusive mode. It annoys me when I can't use DoomBuilder if WhackEd is running because of

3. Would be cool to have copy/paste abilities for states (with intermediate dialog which columns I want to paste). Should work between instances.

4. Would be cool to have ability to change something in selection (for states). Something like we have in DoomBuilder after selecting some lines/things/sectros and invoking of their properties.http://prboom-plus.sf.net/db_properties.png

Big bump. If you decide to work again on WhackED 3 I would like to ask for a .tbl editor. I would like to make custom configuration files, like adding extra states/things/flags supported by Zdaemon. As you might or might not know, Zdaemon is not going to support DECORATE, but it has DEHSUPP. DEHSUPP allows to dehack anything supported by the engine, not just doom stuff.